Literature during the Qajar Era changed, and the elite adopted western journal writing habits. Many members of the Qajar royal family kept diaries or wrote memoirs later. The same goes for government officials as well. Prior to the nineteenth century, however, this level of attention towards mundane and trivial daily occurrences would have been unthinkable for many Iranians, as it would have represented an unhealthy obsession with oneself and a fleeting existence.
The Qajar era was arguably the most important formative period of modern Iranian history. So much happened in the 150 years before Reza Shah’s coup d’état in 1925, and Iran became what it largely is today. What happened, you ask? Borders solidified. People led a revolution and voted a parliament into power. Religious institutions changed, and clerics emerged with a clear political role in society. Artists played with photography. “Traditional Iranian music” changed in this period. Fashion changed. Eating habits changed, foods changed, and even a detail like silverware was introduced. All of this happened, giving us what we think is “traditional Iranian culture.” Traditional culture isn’t a static thing, it morphs and changes and takes on different characteristics over and over again. This is basic knowledge, but what people often overlook is that the Qajar era was key in bringing about those changes.
Check out Persian Painting on facebook—they’re posting a few pics of our fav Shah (Nasir al-Din, of course). This portrait is of Nasir al-Din as a prince with his ballin’ entourage. That’s him in the middle with the sword way too big for him.
Interestingly, he’s holding the hand of his eunuch (read: slave), Amin Khurrem. He’s labeled simply as “Agha Bashi” a common term used for eunuchs during the Qajar era.
This is a picture of Hormuzd Rassam, an Assyrian/Ottoman subject who received British citizenship later in his life. He was a pretty successful archaeologist who unearthed the Cyrus Cylinder in Babylon (present-day Iraq). Interestingly, the Qajars probably didn’t know or care about it, since the artifact was found in a neighboring territory and was written in Akkadian (not Old Persian) cunieform. And yet, this piece of pottery—the Cyrus Cylinder—would define Iranian nationalism during the 20th century.
Anyway, Hormuzd was pretty special for getting his own picture in 1854. Very elite.
Read more about it in my article for the Ajam Media Collective. And of course, follow Ajam on their own tumblr here.
I’m obsessed with legal documents.
Here’s an example of an early Iranian passport from Nasir al-Din Shah’s time, dated 1885. Passports became an important precursor to the concept of citizenship in Iran during the 19th century.
Check out Shahre Farang for the evolution of Iranian passports during the 20th century!
Another missionary, Clara Colliver Rice, published her observations after traveling to Iran in her book Persian Women and their Ways: the experiences and impressions of a long sojourn amongst the women of the land of the Shah with an intimate description of their characteristics, customs and manner of living.
Yes, that whole thing was the title of her book. They liked really long, boring, description titles back then. Persian Women and Their Ways was published in 1923 in Philadelphia.
The broad regional categories “Arabia,” “Caucasia,” and “Mesopotamia” here called “surrounding countries” reflect the changing political landscape of the Middle East in 1923. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed the same year Rice’s book was published, and in the treaty, the Ottoman Empire gave up claims to its territories outside Anatolia and established the Turkish Republic.
I wonder how different the map would have looked if the book was published one or two years later.
Another example of a 19th century Iranian telegraph, this one from the Presbyterian Historical Society Archives in Philadelphia.
An example of a telegraph from the Qajar Era, from Reverend S. G. Wilson’s Persian Life and Customs.
Under the lion icon, it says “The Telegraph Office of the Esteemed Government of Iran.”
During the nineteenth century, Iran became a popular destination for Christian missionaries. Often, both men and women traveled to Iran and kept journals with their observances, which sometimes got published. A few even included photographs.
This is one example, written by Reverend S. G. Wilson and published in 1895. Interestingly, his travelogue not only includes a thematic analysis of Iranian life (chapters titled “business life,” “social and family life,” etc, but he also includes a partial discussion of how he arrived to Iran through the Black Sea, Tiflis, and Ararat, as well as descriptions of the different places he visited: “Tabriz, the Metropolis,” “Maragha, the Seat of the Mongols,” “Teheran, the Capital” and so on.
Qorbanat shavam, “may I be sacrificed for you” (aka, I love you a lot), begins this alleged letter from Amir Kabir to Nasir al-Din Shah. In his letter, Amir Kabir wrote about an incident while the king was away from Tehran, and how the aunt of a corrupt official intervened in state affairs. The letter ends with
عليحضرت بدانند كه اداره امور مملكت با توصيه عمو و خاله نمى شود
“Your Majesty should know that government affairs cannot be run based on input from uncles and aunts.”
Nasir al-Din Shah’s mother, Mahd Olya, was a really active part of his early reign and didn’t get along with Amir Kabir. In fact, she had him removed of his post and ultimately sentenced to death, despite his close relationship with the king. This letter is said to have been an indirect jab at Nasir al-Din for letting his mom get in the way of too many things.
Some historians have dismissed this letter as a forgery. Either way, it makes for a good story.
